The Election Commission on Tuesday made it clear that Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh including the Telangana region will be held along with Lok Sabha polls, rejecting reports to the contrary.

Highly-placed Commission sources said as per law the Commission is constitutionally mandated to hold elections to the Assembly whose term is ending on June 1.

There is no basis to such reports. Elections (to the Assembly) will be held as per schedule along with the Lok Sabha elections, the sources said dismissing reports that the polls may not be held to the state assemblies along with the Parliament polls.

The Assembly elections will be held in all the 117 constituencies in the proposed Telangana state and 175 seats in the residuary Andhra Pradesh, irrespective of what happens or does not happen regarding the division of the state, they said.The sources said that the Centre may have to undertake a lot of preparatory exercise regarding the administrative division of the state including bureaucracy and creation of infrastructure for a Legislative Assembly and Council before bringing into existence the new state.

This includes distribution of cadre, finance, assets and liabilities. Sources in the Central government have indicated that the Centre will fix an appointed day for the birth of the new state. The government is free to announce the appointed day even during the election process. There is no legal obstacle, the sources said.

The Commission sources said that elections are held to a constituency--whether it is Assembly or Lok Sabha-- and there are 117 Assembly Constituencies and 17 Lok Sabha Constituencies in Telangana while it is 175 and 25 respectively.

If the appointed day is going to be June 1, then also the new Assembly can be constituted by then because the elections would have been over in May last week.

-PTI